Police on Saturday cracked the Gouri Mishra murder case by arresting seven persons for their alleged involvement in the murder that took place in Gunupur area of Rayagada district on May 13, 2023.
In a press conference, Rayagada SP Vivekananda Sharma revealed the details of the case and the sequence of the events.
Of the seven arrested persons, Regicheti Krishna, Akula Govinda, Daseri Venkat Rao, and Akash Kumar Badapu were arrested for hiring a contract killer to murder Gouri Mishra. Then the contract killer was also bumped off for which Regicheti Krishna and Akula Govinda were also booked along with Binod Bauri, Chanti alias Kattapali Arun Kumar and Muna Pidika. The police also seized one motorcycle and two pistols from the accused.
According to the police, Gouri had a land dispute with Regicheti Krishna’ family. To eliminate Gouri, Regicheti colluded with his brother-in-law Govinda alias GK, friend Akash Kumar Badapu and uncle Daseri Venkat Rao and hatched a conspiracy.
They hired contract killer Raja alias V. Rajesh of Gunupur Town offering the blood money to the tune of Rs. 30 lakhs. After committing the crime, when Raja asked for the rest of the money, Regicheti hatched another plan to eliminate Raja.
As per the plan, they asked Raja to come to Vishakhapatnam to receive the money. Regicheti, Akula Govinda, Binod Bauri, Chanti alias Kattapali Arun Kumar and Muna Pidika reached Vishakhapatnam in a car on June 19 evening. They then took Raja to a nearby jungle and strangulated him to death there.
After recovering the body of Gouri Mishra from the Bansadhara bridge at around 9.30 pm on May 13, the police launched a probe.
Meanwhile, contract killer Raja's mother, V Laxmi registered a missing report at Gunupur police station on June 25 mentioning that her son was missing since June 19.
During the investigation, V Laxmi told the police that while her son was traveling from Bhubaneswar to Bangalore, he got down at a place after receiving a call from someone.
This piece of information provided a lead to the police. They interrogated Krishna and GK and on the basis of information they divulged, a team went to Andhra Pradesh.
There with the help of Anandapuram police, they reached a hill near Ganding Gunding and recovered V Rajesh’s body. Later, police retrieved the call details of Gouri’s mobile phone and zeroed in on the last caller, leading to all the arrests.